1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cooling system for an internal combustion engine wherein liquid coolant is boiled to make use of the latent heat of vaporization thereof and the vapor used as a vehicle for removing heat from the engine, and more specifically to such a system which includes circuitry which monitors the operation of an arrangement which recycles condensed coolant back to the coolant jacket of the system for re-evaporation and which issues an alarm when the recycling characteristics indicate that a malfunction has occured in the system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In currently used "water cooled" internal combustion engines such as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, the engine coolant (liquid) is forcefully circulated by a water pump, through a circuit including the engine coolant jacket and an air cooled radiator. This type of system encounters the drawback that a large volume of water is required to be circulated between the radiator and the coolant jacket in order to remove the required amount of heat. Further, due to the large mass of water inherently required, the warm-up characteristics of the engine are undesirably sluggish. For example, if the temperature difference between the inlet and discharge ports of the coolant jacket is 4 degrees, the amount of heat which 1 Kg of water may effectively remove from the engine under such conditions is 4 Kcal. Accordingly, in the case of an engine having 1800 cc displacement (by way of example) is operated at full throttle, the cooling system is required to remove approximately 4000 Kcal/h. In order to achieve this a flow rate of 167 Liter/min (viz., 4000-60.times.1/4) must be produced by the water pump. This of course undesirably consumes a number of otherwise useful horsepower.
FIG. 2 shows an arrangement disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Second Provisional Publication No. Sho 57-57608. This arrangement has attempted to vaporize a liquid coolant and use the gaseous form thereof as a vehicle for removing heat from the engine. In this system the radiator 1 and the coolant jacket 2 are in constant and free communication via conduits 3, 4 whereby the coolant which condenses in the radiator 1 is returned to the coolant jacket 2 little by little under the influence of gravity.
This arrangement has suffered from the drawbacks that the radiator, depending on its position with respect to the engine proper tends to be at least partially filled with liquid coolant. This greatly reduces the surface area via which the gaseous coolant (for example steam) can effectively release its latent heat of vaporization and accordingly condense and thus has lacked any notable improvement in cooling efficiency.
Further, with this system in order to maintain the pressure within the coolant jacket and radiator at atmospheric level, a gas permeable water shedding filter 5 is arranged as shown, to permit the entry of air into and out of the system. However, this filter permits gaseous coolant to gradually escape from the system, inducing the need for frequency topping up of the coolant level.
A further problem with this arrangement has come in that some of the air, which is sucked into the cooling system as the engine cools, tends to dissolve in the water, whereby upon start up of the engine, the dissolved air tends to form small bubbles in the radiator which adhere to the walls thereof forming an insulating layer. The undisolved air tends to collect in the upper section of the radiator and inhibit the convection-like circulation of the vapor from the cylinder block to the radiator. This of course further deteriorates the performance of the device.
European Patent Application Provisional Publication No. 0 059 423 published on Sept. 8, 1982 discloses another arrangement wherein, liquid coolant in the coolant jacket of the engine, is not circulated therein and permitted to absorb heat to the point of boiling. The gaseous coolant thus generated is adiabatically compressed in a compressor so as to raise the temperature and pressure thereof and introduced into a heat exchanger. After condensing, the coolant is temporarily stored in a reservoir and recycled back into the coolant jacket via a flow control valve.
This arrangement has suffered from the drawback in that air tends to leak into the system upon cooling thereof. This air tends to be forced by the compressor along with the gaseous coolant into the radiator. Due to the difference in specific gravity, the air tends to rise in the hot environment while the coolant which has condensed moves downwardly. The air, due to this inherent tendency to rise, forms large bubbles of air which cause a kind of "embolism" in the radiator and badly impair the heat exchange ability thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,699 issued on Jan. 11, 1983 in the name of Evans (see FIG. 3 of the drawings) discloses an engine system wherein the coolant is boiled and the vapor used to remove heat from the engine. This arrangement features a separation tank 6 wherein gaseous and liquid coolant are initially separated. The liquid coolant is fed back to the cylinder block 7 under the influence of gravity while the "dry" gaseous coolant (steam for example) is condensed in a fan cooled radiator 8. The temperature of the radiator is controlled by selective energizations of the fan 9 to maintain a rate of condensation therein sufficient to maintain a liquid seal at the bottom of the device. Condensate discharged from the radiator via the above mentioned liquid seal is collected in a small reservoir-like arrangement 10 and pumped back up to the separation tank via a small pump 11.
This arrangement, while providing an arrangement via which air can be initially purged from the system tends to, due to the nature of the arrangement which permits said initial non-condensible matter to be forced out of the system, suffers from rapid loss of coolant when operated at relatively high altitudes. Further, once the engine cools air is relatively freely admitted back into the system. The provision of the separation tank 6 also renders engine layout difficult.
Japanese Patent Application First Provisional Publication No. Sho. 56-32026 (see FIG. 4 of the drawings) discloses an arrangement wherein the structure defining the cylinder head and cylinder liners are covered in a porous layer of ceramic material 12 and coolant sprayed into the cylinder block from shower-like arrangements 13 located above the cylinder heads 14. The interior of the coolant jacket defined within the engine proper is essentially filled with gaseous coolant during engine operation during which liquid coolant sprayed onto the ceramic layers 12. However, this arrangement has proved totally unsatisfactory in that upon boiling of the liquid coolant absorbed into the ceramic layers the vapor thus produced escaping into the coolant jacket inhibits the penetration of liquid coolant into the layers whereby rapid overheat and thermal damage of the ceramic layers 12 and/or engine soon results. Further, this arrangement is plagued with air contamination and blockages in the radiator similar to the compressor equipped arrangement discussed above.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,787,562 issued on Jan. 6, 1931 in the name of Barlow, discloses a vapor cooled engine wherein a level sensor is disposed in the coolant jacket and arranged to control a pump which recycles condensed coolant from a small reservoir located at the base of the radiator in which coolant vapor is condensed, back to the coolant jacket. However, in this system the interior of the system is vented to the atmosphere via a small valve disposed atop of the reservoir. Accordingly, with this system although some provision is made for displacing the air which inevitably enters the cooling circuit of this arrangement, this very provision prevents control of the boiling point of the coolant via varying the pressure within the system. Further, the low level location of the valve inhibits complete purging of the air which exters the system during non-use.
Moreover, with the above arrangement, should the system develop a leak or otherwise lose coolant in a manner that insufficient liquid is available for providing adequate cooling of the system, no warning device or the like is provided to bring attention to this fact. Thus, the engine is likely to undergo severe thermal damage.
In summary, although the basic concepts of open and closed "vapor cooling" systems wherein the coolant is boiled to make use of the latent heat of evaporation thereof and condensed in a suitable heat exchanger, is known, the lack of a control system which is both sufficiently simple as to allow practical use and which overcomes the various problems plauging the prior art is wanting.